Jack o' Lantern Tales
by PockyCrusader
Summary: It started out as a single short, appears to be morphing into a series of shorts.  Stay tuned, I guess.
1. Courage

Just a short bit I wrote based on a writing prompt quote. Randall Oland contemplates the courage of Alice L. Malvin.

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear — not absence of fear." ~ Mark Twain

He admired her. No, admired was the wrong word. He revered her. When the enemies mounted up on all sides, she drew her sword and charged forward without a trace of fear.

No. That was wrong, too. The fear was there, but it was harnessed like a strong steed to a war chariot.

Not like him. He hesitated - doubted. His hands trembled even as he reached for the switch that turned him into the cold-blooded, destructive killer he had been trained to become. He feared the enemy. He feared himself. The lantern extinguished that fear momentarily – sent it away somewhere far away. But when he turned it off, the fear returned stronger than ever.

But he would embrace that fear if it meant he would be protecting her.


	2. Gurney

I started writing and couldn't stop. I guess this will be a collection of shorts then, huh?

Gurney

Alice wondered how often she'd see him like this, stretched out on a gurney that was too short to support his large body. The nurse would be coming back with chairs to put under his legs to support them as they stuck out over the end of the bed. You'd think with as often as Corporal Oland had been in this hospital they'd have invested in extra-large equipment. God knows Rosetta was determined to find a urine collector big enough for him. The mere thought of it made Alice blush.

For now, she sat next to him and waited for him to wake up. It was the least she could do right now. She feared the day that he simply wouldn't wake up, and he'd quietly drift away on a gurney too short for him. It wasn't a dignified way for someone who had given so much to the Empire to be treated. She made a note to have strong words with the hospital administration.

Randall made a sound in his sleep - somewhere between a grunt and a moan. His right hand twitched and lifted laboriously, as if lifting something heavy under water. Alice reached over and placed her hand on his scarred wrist and muttered something soothing. He relaxed again. The gurney creaked underneath his shifting weight.

Make those very strong words with the hospital administration.


	3. Awakening

**Awakening**

Randal Oland felt the tiny threads of consciousness beginning to weave around him again and knew that he was about to wake up from sedation. His leg and face throbbed in time with his pulse, but he ignored it with barely an effort of will. He fully expected to be alone in the cool, sterile hospital room staring patiently up at the IV bag and the ceiling tiles until nurse came in to check on him. It wasn't the first time he'd woken up alone after spending an indeterminate time in the icy embrace of the eerie blue lantern's nightmare world, and he'd grown accustomed to the loneliness the same way he'd grown used to waking up with new scars.

When he heard the soft noise next to him, he gave a start. Slowly, he turned his head, not knowing what to expect.

Lt. Malvin slumped over on the edge of his bed, her head pillowed on her folded arms. Her face was turned toward him. She looked so small and vulnerable when she slept. He found himself wondering how someone so small could have such a large presence – how she could manage to somehow chase away the horrors of the war in his dreams when someone as large and strong as he was couldn't manage to fight them away.

He resisted the urge to stroke her hair like he would one of his favorite stray cats. He wondered if it would feel as silky as it looked. …

Strays…

Oh…. They were probably hungry, and the homeless men under the bridge barely had enough to feed themselves, let alone spare food for the cats. He hauled himself out of bed with a soft groan. Alice stirred in her sleep, and he froze, afraid that he had woken her up. She settled down again and snuggled her cheek against her forearm. He gave a small smile and draped an extra blanket over her shoulders to ward off the chill, and then he opened the window to climb out.

Not but a few minutes later, Alice stirred again and then startled awake. She chastised herself for falling asleep when she was meant to be watching over the corporal….. ….who was nowhere to be seen. A moment of panic clenched in her chest. He could be anywhere. He could be delirious or passed out somewhere all alone…. She leapt to her feet and rang for a nurse.

He turned up an hour later, limping in with muddy bandages. The nurses fussed over the state of the newly reopened wounds. He ran a fever that night, and she had been shooed from the room so that the nurses could bathe him in cool water in an attempt to bring his temperature down. She had been barred from his room for the rest of the following day so that he could recover without risking further infection, and the doctor pronounced the sentence – due to wound festering, he would have to stay extra time at the hospital.

"You IDIOT!" she'd shouted at him. She called him a few more things, too before storming out of his room. Once safely out of sight of the hospital, her anger ebbed and the real feeling underneath surfaced. She told herself that she was merely annoyed with his carelessness, but she couldn't deny that she'd felt real fear for him the other night. Something fluttered in her chest like a butterfly trapped in a jar when she thought of that moment when she woke and realized he was gone. She clenched her fists and tried to summon the anger again, afraid of what other new feelings might be awakening within her.


	4. Candle

"A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle."  
>James Keller<p>

There are many who credit the success of the Pumpkin Scissors platoon to 2nd Lt. Alice Malvin. True, she has been the most visible member of the platoon - making inspiring speeches to the newspapers and fending off attacks on noblemen without even taking off her high heels, but the true "light" of the platoon, Captain Hunks has always felt, is Sgt. Major Lily Stecchin.

Lily had been with the unit since the beginning. When they struggled to get funding from the government, Lily had cheerfully assured him that it would all turn out right. And somehow, despite everything, it would. When Oreldo joined the unit, they would stand in the cold slush in the streets with a donation box for war orphans. While Oreldo grumbled about soggy socks and numb fingers, Stecchin would ring sleigh bells and carol to get attention to their efforts. And when Corporal Oland was suffering from severe depression following the incident in the waterways, who was there to try to lift his spirits but Sgt Major Stecchin?

However, Captain Hunks's sources were indicating that everything they had encountered so far was just the edge of the coming storm. If he wasn't careful, their precious candle could get snuffed out in the gale. And there'd be hell to pay if that happened. He'd make sure of it.


	5. Beer

"Come on, man. We gotta go celebrate with a drink!"

Newly-minted Warrant Officer Oreldo, fresh off of the graduation stage of the academy, clapped a hand onto his best friends' shoulder. Although he had just pressed his dress uniform that morning, somehow he still managed to achieve a certain disheveled look that made him popular with the ladies. Machs, on the other hand, was still chafing at the neck from the heavily-starched collar of his dress uniform. When Oreldo's hand struck the shoulder of his jacket, the material barely flexed under the impact.

"Are you sure it's a good idea for officers to be seen drinking in uniform?" Machs asked.

"With any luck, we won't be in uniform for very long," Oreldo said with a lecherous leer.

Several drinks later, at least one of them was halfway out of their uniform. Machs stood on the table, his perfectly-pressed trousers flapping in one hand as he performed a complicated alcohol-induced jig. Ladies were tucking mark-notes into his shirt-stays.

"Hey, hey, leave some for the rest of us!" Oreldo called.

There was a crash as the table tipped over in protest of being used as a stage. It was the last thing that Machs could remember from that day.

The next morning, he woke up with an MP's helmet in his arms, a black eye, a raging headache, and wearing a pair of lacy unmentionables in place of his boxers. When pressed, Oreldo would only chuckle and shake his head.

* * *

><p>"Forget about her. Let's go get a drink."<p>

Holding the still-warm engagement ring in his hand, Oreldo nodded numbly. Machs draped a brotherly arm over his shoulders and guided him away from the scene of the heartbreak.

"I just knew that she was the one," lamented Oreldo for the umpteenth time over his latest beer.

"I know, Oreldo. I know," Machs said sympathetically. He hauled Oreldo back into an upright position on his stool for the third time.

"She was…perfec', y'know?" slurred Oreldo. "Abs'l'tly beautif'l. An' we were gonna be so happy t'geth'r. We w're gonna have kids…anna house… an' then what happens? She meets some MEATHEAD f'm Section One…"

Once again, Machs pulled him back to an upright position.

"An' now all I got izza ring I still gotta pay off… …an a pair a' her stockin's… which I'm not givin' back!"

Oreldo put down his mug and swiveled to face Machs.

"An' you know what else?" he slurred.

"What?"

"… …I'm gonna be si-…" **HUEEGGGHBGLRKG!**

"Aw, come on!"

* * *

><p>It had been a long day at the office for Section 3. Who knew that orphan kids could have so much energy? Just what were they putting in their oatmeal these days?<p>

As they left the headquarters building for the night, Oreldo looked back over his shoulder and sighed. The hulking shape of Corporal Oland could be seen lingering at the main gate, looking for all the world like a lost child in a busy marketplace. Oreldo wondered what he did with his time between clocking out and retiring to his sleeping bag under the bridge. Surely he didn't sit there under the bridge feeding cats and wrestling with his inner demons all evening, right?

…Well, okay. Knowing him, this was a distinct possibility.

Oreldo sighed again and nudged Machs to get his attention. They looked at each other, then at Oland, and then back at each other again with a nod.

"Hey, Big Guy," Oreldo called. "Let's go grab a beer. Machs is buying."

"Wh-what?!"


End file.
